Chair's Office

March 12, 2012

In the photo above, 4th year Industrial Engineering students celebrate their Iron Rings on Saturday, March 3.

MIE Flexible PhD Program
The motion to establish the flexible PhD program in MIE was passed at a recent Faculty Council meeting with a large majority vote. The program is expected to commence in September 2012. Thanks to Professor Markus Bussmann for leading the initiative, and congratulations to him and to all for their support at Faculty Council.

Matthesa Gregg accepts Design Administrative Assistant PositionMatthesa Gregg has accepted the offer as Design Administrative Assistant, a newly created position to support design activities including the capstone design courses and the U of T Institute for Multidisciplinary Design and Innovation (UT-IMDI). She will start on Monday, March 12. Matthesa joined in August 2011 as Receptionist and Operation Assistant. We welcome Matthesa to the new position and wish her all the best in this new and exciting endeavor.

MIE Alumnus Leads Development of Most Fuel-Efficient CarThe Ford Focus electric is officially the U.S.'s most fuel-efficient five-passenger car. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certified the vehicle at 105 miles per gallon-equivalent (mpg-e) in the combined cycle of city and highway driving. MIE alumnus Ted Robertson (MechE 7T1, MEng 7T7) leads Magna's activities in electric vehicle propulsion, including the Ford e-Focus program. He is Vice Chairman & President, North America, of Magna E-Car Systems, and Chief Technical Officer the Americas for Magna International.

NSERC Funded Research Professor Sanjeev Chandra has been awarded an NSERC Engage Grant for a project to "develop a compact, high efficiency heat exchanger that uses combustion of natural gas to heat compressed air used in cold spray guns." Industry partner CenterLine Inc. of Windsor, Ontario is one of the leading manufacturers in the world of cold spray equipment, making portable systems to spray metal coatings onto surfaces.

Professor Mandelis » Visit to Major Centres in China
Professor Andreas Mandelis will be visiting three major centers in China as of Sunday, March 10: The University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in Chengdu; Suzhou University in Suzhoo (near Shanghai); and the Institute of Optics and Electronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shechuan. In all these institutions he will be giving several research talks, including the CADIFT flagship presentation: "Diffusion Waves: They go where no light has gone before!"

He will also meet with officials (Deans, VP Research, Presidents) in those institutions and will also act as an ambassador for the University of Toronto, being asked to present talks on facts about our Faculty to large bodies of students (Undergraduate and Graduate), faculty and administrators.

Professor Prasad » 30th Anniversary Lecture Series in Ankara, Turkey
Adjunct Professor S. Eswar Prasad, will deliver the 30th anniversary lecture (Aero30) at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey from March 16 - 28, 2012. Professor Prasad is currently a Visiting Professor at the University. As a part of this series, Professor Prasad will deliver six lectures (total of 18 hours) on Smart Materials and Systems. It is anticipated that up to 200 people from academic, research and industrial areas will attend these lectures. Professor Prasad is also the CEO of Piemades, Inc., and a member of the MIE Industry Board of Advisors.

Graduate Studies

Toronto Engineering Club of Speakers (TECS) Meeting
• Develop your speaking and leadership skills in a fun environment
• Network with professional engineers and other students
• Play different roles: toastmaster, topics master, speaker, evaluator, grammarian, ah-counter, and moreDate: Every TuesdayTime: 6:45 p.m. Location: MC331

Applications » Discovery Student Competitions
Ontario Centres of Excellence's annual Discovery conference features two open student competitions where Ontario university and college students and recent grads can compete to receive cash and other prizes. Information about the Student Video Competition and Social Enterprise Student Competition can be found below or by visiting the Discovery 12 Competitions webpage.

Announcements

R Tutorial
R is a programming language and environment developed by (mostly) statisticians using the language S as a base. This tutorial will provide you with the basic tools and exposure to R. We will cover a variety of statistical and graphical tools, using practical data analysis examples.Date: Monday, March 12 Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Location: MC310

Newsletter Archives

The MIE Newsletter is a weekly summary of key headlines, events and opportunities for faculty and staff in the Mechanical & Industrial Engineering department within the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. If you have questions or comments, please contact: newsletter@mie.utoronto.ca.